I've seen some bad ankle joints but I just don't get that level of frustration. I LOVE that my Star Wars (and Indiana Jones) figures have ankle joints. The vast majority do not interfere with the aesthetics and they often help with posing and standing. And because they are actually tight and good quality they have never contributed to a figure falling.

UncleMarsellus wrote:

Forgive me if someone has already made this point but the Star Wars line consistently proves you can have "realism," many POAs, and fun in largely good quality toys. Collect the recent Vintage collection line or even Clone Wars (they emulate the show's style pretty well) and you might feel differently...But by and large, I'd say Hasbro produces the best 3.75" scale toys that happen to be lots of fun too.

I just don't think Hasbro puts in the same effort on other lines (for obvious reasons). MU doesn't compare at all. Outside of the recent SDCC exclusive set which rocked, I don't even think their Indiana Jones figures compared.

I'm pretty neutral when it comes to articulation...to me it all depends on the scale and detail of the figure. One point of articulation that I absolutely DESPISE on anything is ankle joints!!

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I'm also semi-neutral. The PoTF2 figures, I loved because they appeared to be sturdier toys and the poses were natural. But the newer figures are truer to scale and texture. Sadly, I can't vouch for the joints because I leave my Vintage Collection MOC, but some of the Clone Wars (which I've passed on thus far) look too cool to not open.

Back to the realism debate, I'll use the McFarlane example. I used to hate McFarlane figs because they weren't really toys. They had incredible detail, but try posing them in a different way than how they were molded. Now, I really appreciate them. They display very well and I've had non-collectors ask if my Akira figs were statues.

Forgive me if someone has already made this point but the Star Wars line consistently proves you can have "realism," many POAs, and fun in largely good quality toys. Collect the recent Vintage collection line or even Clone Wars (they emulate the show's style pretty well) and you might feel differently...

But by and large, I'd say Hasbro produces the best 3.75" scale toys that happen to be lots of fun too...

I just don't think Hasbro puts in the same effort on other lines (for obvious reasons). MU doesn't compare at all. Outside of the recent SDCC exclusive set which rocked, I don't even think their Indiana Jones figures compared. I think the new Thundercats figures from Bandai strike a good balance. Their other offerings have been similar too.

I would agree that, for the most part, Hasbro does do some of the the best 1:18th scale out there, but also it should be pointed out they are one of the few companiest that consistantly go to that scale. While other companies dip to that direction (Mattel with DCIH and GL or Bandai with recent Power Rangers and Thundercats) they do not seem to put the focus there and thus miss the point on many aspects. Although I will also say that often they get it right too like with Lion-O, but there are just as many Mumm-Ra's and the kits to balance ou tthose successes.

That also ins't to say Hasbro is perfect, in fact they have done some pretty hairbrained ideas over the years (and continue to do so, while appologists try to claim excuses, years later they are agreeing with the masses, weird eh).

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Some of my favorite lines are Superhero Squad, Galactic Heroes and Action League. So articulation obviously wouldn't be necessary for me.

I totally agree. Also the Imaginext line of figures are great, they still allow for posing with less articulation. Besides, my kids and I have more fun with these than other action figures since they are just easier for my three and six year old to make stand up on their own.

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Hyper articulation is to action figures what the 90's were to comic books.

IF articulation is done well, like MOTUC, it can really work, but the articulation on DCUC and Marvel leaves me very unimpressed. DC Direct does much better figures in the larger scale, they may have less articulation, but they are just better all around.

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I like ankle joints. They make some poses look more realistic and fun to look at. I do not like loose ankle joints. I was told that putting floor polish in the joints will help stiffen them up but I never tried myself. Don't know what kind of floor polish either. Does anyone know anything about this?

Articulation is great when the overall figure is durable and of high quality.

But, Hasbro does not produce high quality or durable toys. These figures are mass produced in China out of cheap plastic. When you add in 3 3/4 scale and all these points of articulation on top of that, you get the potential for a very shoddy figure. Sometimes the figures are OK, often times they are not.

"the figures themselves are not as strong as they could be. One issue that comes up is the plastic joints, they are soft compared to the other figures from Hasbro in this scale. One of my figures, Johnny, did have a broken ankle joint from trying to pose him."

It's amazing the amount of people who complain about the Hasbro joints I have never ever had any snap or tear or anything else for that matter - I would love to know what these people are doing to get them to do it.

[nerd voice] disagree [/nerd voice]I won't try and defend MU. Not a fan. But Star Wars and later Indiana Jones waves? No way you can say they are not high quality and durable. I just won't stand for it!

It's amazing the amount of people who complain about the Hasbro joints I have never ever had any snap or tear or anything else for that matter - I would love to know what these people are doing to get them to do it.

Are you moving your figures around a lot or do they just sit on a shelf?

In addition to snaps and tears, there are also loose and sticky joints. As for what people are doing, in the above video, not much, the figure broke hours after being opened. Watch the jtrain review on Scarlet Spider as well, this figure breaks immediately after being opened.

Quote:

I have had a couple of Multiple Men pop hip or shoulder joints during depackaging, and those particular joints are weak, but they pop right back in.

But they also could pop right back out again, action figure legs are not supposed to easily pop off and on.

Figures shouldn't break that easy, can you imagine if one of the vintage toy lines like He-Man or TMNT had done this?

Quote:

Its funny how people find maybe 10 examples of a bad joint or some sort of breakage and they cry foul QC. No one seems to remember that these are produced in the 10s of thousands of units.

Generally speaking, QC issues that are in the < 5% range are only to be expected and aren't uncommon amongst any mass produced item.

I'd say about 2/3 of the Hasbro figures I open are unsatisfactory from a QC standpoint. It is not necessarily a joint popping off or breaking, but the loose joints, sticky joints, it always seems to be something. I just opened a Snake Eyes figure that is very hard to move and the joints feel like they have been superglued. A lot of times the smaller accessories will break, or not connect to the figures as they should. A good example is the MU classic costume Havok variant where the headgear would break off, and this is why on the loose Havok variants on ebay you often see it with the headgear missing. I recently opened a GI Joe Ripcord figure and as soon as I tried to put his helmet on it broke. Watch almost any youtube review of a modern GI Joe figure where the reviewer actually puts on and takes off the accessories on camera and you'll see these same types of problems.

I understand these are mass produced. All I am saying is that being mass produced, made out cheap plastic, of this small scale, AND having all these little points of articulation is a recipe for shoddy figures. If you took one of those factors out there wouldn't be a problem, but all these things combine to create easily breakable toys.

You have a lot of figures that look good on the shelf but would be somewhat frustrating for any child to actually play with due to the shoddiness. This is the end result of everyone who clamored for "more articulation" over the past decades, and mindlessly equated more articulation with a good figure, while at the same time downplaying and condescendingly referring to action features as "gimmicks".